The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1960 Olympic Games took place between August 30 and 31. This

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

event used

freestyle swimming Freestyle is a category of Swimming (sport), swimming competition, defined by the rules of the International Swimming Federation (FINA), in which competitors are subject to a few limited restrictions on their swimming stroke. Freestyle races ar ...

, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the

front crawl The front crawl or forward crawl, also known as the Australian crawl or American crawl, is a swimming stroke usually regarded as the fastest of the four front primary strokes. As such, the front crawl stroke is almost universally used during a f ...

or a variant of that stroke. Because an

Olympic-size swimming pool An Olympic-size swimming pool conforms to regulated dimensions that are large enough for international competition. This type of swimming pool is used in the Olympic Games, where the race course is in length, typically referred to as "long cour ...

is 50 metres long, this race consisted of eight lengths of the pool.

Medalists

Results

Heats

Six heats were held; the fastest eight swimmers advanced to the Finals. The swimmers that advanced are highlighted.

Heat One

Heat Two

Heat Three

Heat Four

Heat Five

Heat Six

Final

Key: OR = Olympic record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming At The 1960 Summer Olympics - Men's 400 Metre Freestyle Men's freestyle 400 metre Men's events at the 1960 Summer Olympics